Latina wine executive supports first-gen students
Susana Cueva Drumwright, founder and CEO of St. Helena’s Vida Valiente Winery and Foundation, was once a first-generation, low-income student at California State University Fullerton. This year, her foundation has secured more than $2 million to support students walking the same path.
Vida Valiente raised $2.34 million at its third annual auction in January at Montage Los Cabos. It is considered to be Mexico’s highest-grossing wine auction.
Motivated by her own college experience, she often felt lost yet found support from unexpected mentors. Along with her husband Hayes Drumwright, they co-founded the Vida Valiente Foundation in 2022.
Their mission: to pay it forward and ensure no student has to navigate the college journey alone.
The scholarship also provides a network for first-generation, low-income college students, who represent a significant amount of the student population in California universities.
“My mom is from Guatemala and my dad is from Mexico… I was really inspired by their hard work in pursuing the American dream,” she said. “They always told me, ‘If you commit yourself to your studies, anything is possible,’ but as a first-generation college student, you need that guidance, network and financial support. We are providing that.”
At the heart of the foundation is the St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon, “The Movement,” made from grapes harvested in the Napa Valley. With each bottle of the $250 wine sold, $100 directly supports the Vida Valiente Foundation.
Now in its third year, the foundation has awarded 119 Stanford undergraduates “last-dollar scholarships,” covering expenses unmet by financial aid.
“At first, I assumed Stanford was well-funded and had a lot of money, but I learned that even ‘full-ride’ students face expected family contributions,” Cueva Drumwright said. “We cover that critical gap, allowing them to study abroad, secure internships or focus fully on their education instead of taking on additional jobs.”
It’s a gap that Cueva Drumwright knew all too well in college where she worked multiple jobs to earn her college degree. “I didn’t know how to take full advantage of the resources at school,” she reflected. “Many first-gen students are just focused on surviving and making it to graduation.”
Inspired by her mother, who fled poverty in Guatemala and arrived in the U.S. alone, jobless and not yet fluent in English, Cueva Drumwright pushed through college, juggling demands – turning struggle into strength, becoming a first-generation graduate.
She grew up in the urban part of Orange County and after college, briefly worked at a Florida-based e-commerce startup before finding her way to Silicon Valley, where she briefed top venture capitalists. In 2019, after welcoming her first child with her husband, Hayes, she felt a deep calling to support first-generation college students. Meanwhile, Hayes developed a passion for Napa wines, embarking on his own winemaking journey while wholeheartedly supporting his wife’s vision for a foundation.
Cueva Drumwright, who makes up part of the mere 1.6 percent of Hispanic senior executives at major U.S. companies, sees reflections of her own journey in the students the foundation serves.
“It’s incredible how despite facing homelessness, abuse or difficult socioeconomic backgrounds, they’ve persevered and made it this far,” she said.
Regular coffee chats with scholarship recipients have led her to expand the program with a goal of supporting 1,000 students over the next 15 years.
The Drumwrights personally review the applications and look for three character traits she said: grit, authenticity and potential.
But in most cases, she explained, “There’s no good reason to say no – it’s only financial limitations that stand in the way.”
In their first year, they aimed to accept 25 students but ended up awarding scholarships to over a dozen more. And each year, that number and impact continues to grow.
